Section 27 in Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Fees and Charges of Regional Load Despatch Centre and other related matters) Regulations, 2019
27. LDC Development Fund.
(1)The Power System Operation Company shall create and maintain a separate fund called 'Load Despatch Centre Development Fund' ('LDCD Fund') for administering capital expenditure.(2)The charges on account of return on equity, interest on loan, depreciation of the RLDCs and NLDC including the registration fees and interest earned on LDCD Fund shall be deposited into the LDCD Fund after meeting the statutory tax requirements:Provided that short term open access charges and other income of the RLDCs and NLDC, if any, shall not form part of the LDCD Fund and will be deposited to a separate account namely Contingency Reserve as per regulation - 28 of these Regulations.(3)The RLDC and NLDC shall be entitled to utilize the money deposited in the LDCD Fund for creation of new assets, loan repayment, servicing the capital raised in the form of interest and dividend payment restricted to 15.50% of paid up Capital, meeting stipulated equity portion in asset creation, margin money for raising loan from the financial institutions, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Activities in compliance of the applicable provisions of the Companies Act and Dept. of Public Enterprises (DPE) / other applicable Government Guidelines issued and amended from time to time, Capacity Building of SLDCc and sub-LDC personnel and other users / stake holders, including but not limited to using the platform of Forum of Load Despatchers (FOLD) and/or through Institutes of national/international repute for capacity building, funding participation in national/international conferences and publication of technical papers there-in, facilitating higher education, availing institutional membership with national/international bodies and funding of Research & Development (R & D) projects, hiring consultancy service for learning & implementation of new technology & market products etc. subject to approval of the Commission.(4)LDCs shall ensure timely payment of fees like membership fee or any other recurring or nonrecurring expenditure related to participation in the activities of the FOLD from the LDCD Fund. NLDC shall deposit such fees to the LDCD Fund after meeting the expenses on FOLD activities, if any.(5)Any shortfall in meeting the revenue expenditure including HR expenses shall be met from LDCD Fund. For this purpose, Load Despatch Centre shall be entitled to take interest free advance from LDCD Fund which shall be recouped from the expenditure allowed by the Commission under the respective heads at the time of truing up to be carried out after the expiry of the control period 2019-24.(6)Any asset created by the POSOCO out of the money deposited into the LDCD Fund shall be considered for computation of depreciation as per the rates specified in these Regulations. If required, POSOCO may finance capital assets partly from the equity and partly from LDCD Fund. As such, if the capital project is partly financed from equity share capital, it shall be considered for computation of return on equity, in which case, the funding shall be considered in a normative debt equity ratio of 70:30 with the interest on loan component as NIL and the treatment of equity as per regulation 16(2) of these Regulations. Load Despatch Centre shall submit details of such assets in the CAPEX plan.(7)POSOCO shall submit the amount accumulated in LDCD Fund along with the break-up of sources from where the Fund is received. The POSOCO shall submit to the Commission at the end of every year, a report, along with an auditor's certificate, on utilization of LDCD Fund during the previous year. The report shall, inter alia, contain the details of the quantum of utilized as well as un-utilized portions of the LDCD Fund. The Commission may, if necessary, issue directives to the RLDCs and NLDC for effective utilization of LDCD Fund. For financing of capital assets during 2019-24, money utilized from LDCD Fund shall be treated as interest free advance to be refunded to the Reserve.
